"GENIUS" Olympiad - a Gulenist competition in NY

The "GENIUS" (Global Environmental Issues and Us) Olympiad is a newly established Gulenist competition that took place for the first time during June 27-30 at the SUNY (State University of New York) Oswego campus. The organizers were SUNY-Oswego and the Terra Science and Education Foundation.

SUNY Oswego is listed on the GENIUS website (accessed June 2011) as a "platinum sponsor," along with the Terra Science and Education Foundation. Platinum sponsors, according to the website, gave $20,000 or more. Note that SUNY is a public university, funded with taxpayer money.

Other financial sponsors include Technotime and the Terra Science and Education Foundation (both Gulenist corporations) and the Syracuse Research Corporation. Terra Science and Education Foundation is leasing facilities to the Syracuse Academy of Science (a Gulen charter school) for around $20,000 per month, according to a May 28, 2011 article in the Syracuse Post-Standard. Thus Terra's contribution may also, ultimately, have originated from taxpayer funds.

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Key individuals involved with the GENIUS olympiad include the following individuals, whose connections to the Gulen Movement are shown by their present and past affiliations:Fehmi Damkaci

The GENIUS competition, in common with all Gulenist competitions, is heavily biased towards participants from Gulen schools. The competition bills itself as "international."

To provide perspective, ISEF, the world's largest international science fair, had over 1500 finalists from 65 countries in 2011. Only one winner in this competition came from a Gulen school (Sonoran Science Academy, a Gulen charter school in Arizona). ISEF is not run by the Gulen Movement.

The GENIUS competition had, according to the SUNY Oswego website, 223 young scientists and artists from 34 countries and 31 states. While GENIUS had only 1/6 the number of participants of ISEF 2011, so far among the winners, 20 projects and 32 students have been identified as coming from Gulen schools.This means that students from Gulen schools were well over 100 times more likely to win at GENIUS than at ISEF.

Note that GENIUS (and ISWEEEP) do not show the names of schools in their lists of finalists and winners. This is undoubtedly to help obscure the fact that many of these projects are coming from Gulen schools. Because of this, it is difficult to track down the school names. Therefore the following list is not complete. We expect to soon identify more winners from Gulen schools, and they will be added to this list.

N.B.: our listing of student names here is purely for purposes of evidence. Because the GENIUS competition lists student names and not their schools, the names are an important part of the chain of evidence showing the connection with Gulen schools. No doubt the award-winning students are talented and enjoyed preparing their projects; the fact that they were involved in a Gulenist competition (and were probably completely unaware of this) is not intended in any way to be taken as reflecting on them.

KazakhstanThe influence of oil pollution on soil microbiocoenosis and the biological remediation of soilLeila Ramankulova (spelled Leyla Ramankulova on this KATEV page)School: Astana Nurorda International Kazakh-Turk High School

KazakhstanPhytoremediation potential of Amaranthus Sp. for heavy metals contaminated soil of oil producing terrytory [sic] Syrym Ashir, Akarys Dairabayev (names written as Daytabayev Akaris, Aser Syrym on this KATEV page)School: Aktau KTL (Kazakh Turk High School)Note: A paper of the exact same title, even with the exact same misspelling of the word territory as "terrytory," was presented at a 2003 conference at the University of Tulsa. The authors were A.B. Bigaliev, K.K. Boguspaev, and E.T. Znanburshin of the al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

KazakhstanEnvironmental monitoring using bioindication of zone of oil production and transportation in the Republic of KazakhstanGalymzhan Ayapbergen, Kuandyk Yesbolganov (names are spelled Ayapbergen Galimjan and Yesbolgan Kuandik on this KATEV page)School: Aktau KTL (Kazakh Turk High School) KosovoRemoving phenol from waste water using tea waste Fatlind Dervishi, Kujtim MiftariSchool: Mehmet Akif CollegeNote the following projects with very similar titles; it appears that this project has been recycled multiple times to enable students of the Mehmet Akif College to attend Gulenist olympiads.

A project entitled "Used tea waste adsorption for removal of phenol from synthetic and industrial waste water" was at INEPO in 2009; the student names were Merve Nur Cengiz and Luljeta Januzi, the latter of the Mehmet Akif College, and the former of the Memorial International School of Tirana, a Turkish-run school in Albania. (The country the project was registered under was Kosovo.)

A project entitled "Utilizing used tea waste in absorbing phenol from synthetic and industrial waste water" won honorable mention at ISWEEEP in 2009. The student names were Jeton Dukakjini, Mithat Ibollari, of Mehmet Akif College.

Finally, a paper entitled "Used Tea Waste Adsorption for Removal of Phenol from Synthetic and Kosovo Industrial Waste Water" was published in the Journal of International Environmental Application and Science in 2010; the lead author is F Bolat, with affiliation Mehmet Akif College, Prishtina, Kosovo. The editor-in-chief of this journal is Turkish.

MozambiqueThe use of ground blast furnace slag, chrome slag and corn stem ash as a coating against the corrosionFelix Ubisse Junior and Ayilton Pedro PalateSchool: Willow International SchoolPakistan Isolation of heavymetal resistant fungal strains from tannery fluents and their role in heavy metal removal Hasan IqbalSchool: PakTurk International Schools and Colleges Islampura BranchNote: this project was also at INESPO 2011

TajikistanAn alternating energy system from geothermal sources by using a cpu coolerDavlatjon Nematov, Dorobsho SharipovSchool: Haji Kemal Tajik-Turkish High School in DushanbeTanzaniaEffects of deforestation at Mount Kilimanjaro and how to reduce deforestationNassor Said, Fadhili Shantiwa

TurkmenistanCleaning of the air and soil (earth) from the heavy metals through using plantsAzady Asgarow, Meriba MahmudinowSchool: Dashoguz Turkmen-Turkish High SchoolNote: A project by this same name, from the same school, was at INESPO 2010. A project of the same name was at ISWEEEP 2010, with student names Salahaddin Abdyrazakow, Aman Amanow. United States\ArizonaReceptor-like kinases involved in arabidopsis control of epidermal patterningRachel Courtney WellingtonSchool: Sonoran Science Academy, Arizona

United States\California Use of localized oxygen therapy for healing wounds and stress in societyAustin Grande, Colin PritchardSchool: Pacific Technology School

United States\New York Water soluble porphyrinsAnhThi Tanguyen School: Syracuse Academy of Science Note: this project was also at INESPO 2011 United States\TexasWeapon/Disaster System Visualization and Signal Analysis ID Program for Converting Audio Signals Using Fourier Transform Algorithms. Paul Huron IVSchool: Harmony Science Academy

VietnamPreparation of activated carbon from scrap-coir in Vietnam by chemical activation method for pollutants adsorption in waterChu Manh Chien, Nghiem Trong PhucSchool: Horizon International Bilingual School

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Attenndees from Gulen schools (identified so far) who were not prize-winners:

The following gold-medal-winning GENIUS 2011 project from the Gulen Willow International School in Mozambique had the same title as a 2010 project from Albania, and as a published paper of two professors in Turkey

Mozambique, "The use of ground blast furnace slag, chrome slag and corn stem ash as a coating against the corrosion." Environmental Quality, Students Felix Ubisse Junior and Ayilton Pedro Palate.

It is noteworthy that a project with the exact same title was a nominated project at INESPO 2010, in the Chemistry category, with school name "Liria" from Albania. The student name(s) for this project were not shown on the INESPO website. Liria is the name of a Gulen theological school (medresa) run by the Sema Foundation, a Gulenist organization in Albania.

It seems highly improbable that it is purely by chance that students in Mozambique and Albania would happen to choose the exact same title for their project as that of a research paper by two Turkish professors.

It can be seen above that the overlap extends to the GENIUS competition.In addition, the Dutch newspaper Trouw (circulation around 100,000) ran an article on June 27, 2011 by Annemarie Geleijnse and Rineke van Houten about the large fraction of participants at INESPO which came from Gulen schools. This article raised the issue of whether the competition was in fact a Gulenist gathering, and quoted a Dutch parliament member as criticizing the use of government funds to sponsor INESPO. This article (in Dutch) is accessible online only to subscribers of Trouw. An English translation can be read at our companion website http://gulenforeignmedia.weebly.com/june-27-2011-netherlands.html

In the Trouw article, the journalists asked officials of the Cosmicus Foundation, which runs INESPO (aside: that name will undoubtedly remind Americans of the Cosmos Foundation, which runs ISWEEEP) about the high proportion of students from Gulen schools. The response was that the reason was that the quality of these schools was so good. The respondent said they would actually prefer to have no participants from Gulen schools, as this would settle all discussion of the matter, but that they had to accept all applicants.

This response leads to the following question: If the reason for the high number of attendees from Gulen schools was actually the quality of their projects, why isn't the proportion higher at ISEF, and at other science competitions that are not run by the Gulen Movement?==============================================================

The clear bias of Gulenist competitions such as GENIUS, ISWEEEP in the United States, and INESPO in the Netherlands, towards favoring Gulen schools raises two major questions:

- Why are public funds and facilities (e.g., SUNY-Oswego) being used for these competitions?

- Are American parents whose children attend Gulen schools getting an inflated sense of their children's accomplishments, when their children bring home awards from "international" competitions that are in actuality significantly biased?